Auroville is the perfect space for flights of imagination and creativity. Life here is driven by noblest of ideals, highest aspiration and a spirit of community unheard of before. All activities demand new ways of action.

The entire CitaDyn project has been financed by donations. The obvious challenge to this act is the sustenance aspect of such large projects.
In an attempt to build a new housing mode, CitaDyn also built it in the spirit of a new economy: Fraternal Economy

Being located very close to the Matrimandir, the geographical and spiritual centre of Auroville is one of the reasons that has attracted a lot of residents, old and new, to CitaDyn. Ultimately it will be the residents, their living experiences and their participation in collective living that will sustain CitaDyn's aspirations of being an experiment in modern, urban and spiritual housing.

Not money but dedication to Auroville and its ideals is criterion for allocating residences.

The spirit of Community and actual living as a community: a lot of thought and planning has gone into striking the right balance between these two. For CitaDyn the mantra has been to minimise private space (the allocation is 35 - 45 sq m per person) and maximise common or shared space.

For example, the assumption is to the allocate 35 - 45 sq m per person, consequently, while the apartments range in size from 35 sq m to 100 sq m, an additional 20 sq m within the building is collective space. This includes the whole of the ground floor which will not belong to the residents but be open to all Aurovilians.

Common facilities include a reception desk and management office (responsible for maintaining the apartments: there will be no personal domestic servants in CitaDyn), a laundry, a caféteria, a small internet café and an art centre. Some apartments will be accessible by lift.

On March 24th, from 2pm to 6:30pm, Citadine was ready to receive Aurovilians willing to visit and know the place.

We had an “Open House”.

It was a joy to work with so many Aurovilians, and we would like to express our heartfelt thanks for their expertise, skills, commitment and spirit of collaboration. Except for the row structure of the buildings, that was made by an outside contractor, almost everything else was made by Aurovilians: furniture, wood work, aluminium frames, painting, interior decoration, landscape, water filters, electrical work, etc. To give an idea of the work done, two apartments that are still vacant will be open to be visited.

We are also very grateful for the support received from Auroville through the Housing Service and the FAMC. Their support was there, throughout.

A “Centre for Arts and Research” will be located in Citadine. It will classify and file Dominique Darr's photos; it has a space to house a permanent exhibition of part of Roger's creation, and another space for temporary exhibition. It has also a room for projection of videos and photos on art. We will have some of Pierre Legrand creations exposed specially for that day.

From 3 pm to 5 pm two power points will be shown: one is a selection of Dominique Darr's photos on the Matrimandir, from the very beginning till recently, and the other one is about Roger. At 5:30 pm Vera will play the Russian bells.

There are around 40 people living in Citadine . How have they come there?

From the early stage of the project we made a list with the names of the first persons that asked. The priority was given to long time Aurovilians looking for a place or wanting to change places, then it was open to different persons, the criteria being the work commitment towards Auroville. There is a mix of ages and backgrounds. They are: Anna, Roza, Susana, Yevgeny, Pashi, Gerard, Thulasi, Edoardo, Samuel, Herve, Lakshiminarayan, Tatiana and Arati, Mallika, Frederick, Jothi, Vera and Ashesh, Dominique Darr, Sebastien, Marcia and Natan, Linda and Kyrill, Kaniappan and Danalakshmi, Jean and Eva, Gudula and Noe, Maurice, Aryamani, Shakti and Segar, Carlos and Ayshwarya, Louis and Genevieve.

Citadine is only a first step to a larger development, and we hope to start soon a second phase, for 200 persons, keeping the same spirit.

More projects will be coming in the City Center and in others places, and we hope that soon Auroville will be able to provide suitable accommodation for all Aurovilians and newcomers that are here now, as well as to the thousands that will come.